Strange And Beautiful Monsters

prologue [✓]

Insects droned as sunset bathed the sky in red and purple. The man and his daughter were crouched over the woodpile on the southeast corner of their property, loading logs into a wicker basket, when a nondescript pickup truck emerged from the trees, crunching up the gravel driveway. The man squinted at the vehicle in the half-light, then stood, his daughter behind him.

The truck rolled to a stop a few feet from the residents, high beams turning the one-story house neon. The engine stayed on as two men climbed out of the cab, one hulking and bearded, the other tall and trim. The father's jaw tensed as they approached, body turning just slightly to a defensive angle.

"Jack. Calen."

"Ethan."

The bearded man, Calen, slid his hands into his pants pockets. Jack shifted his weight. For a bloated few minutes, the three men were silent as the light dimmed further, the whirring of insects ticking up in volume. It was the little girl who broke the tension, shuffling closer to her father to tug on the leg of his jeans.

Ethan turned his head toward her, keeping an eye on their visitors. "Go get your mama, sweetheart," he said gently. "We're just gonna have a chat."

The girl glanced uncertainly between her father and the other men, then nodded, halo of curls bouncing. She scampered into the house on her heels and fingertips, leaving the basket of logs with Ethan. Calen's eyes followed her with an unmistakeable glint, but neither made any move to intercept her. The bang of the screen door shutting behind her echoed around the clearing.

"What's the meaning of this then?" Ethan asked, voice and body language carefully neutral.

Jack rolled his neck. "You still haven't voted. Decision happens tonight."

Ethan scoffed and spat into the grass. Calen scowled, the first break from his otherwise leisurely demeanor. "Jessi already knows our vote, why should I waste my time arguing about it?"

"You know that ain't how it works," Calen snapped, but Ethan had already turned away to hoist the basket of logs onto his shoulder. The man gave his visitors a dismissive once-over, then started for the house.

Calen and Jack moved almost as one to block his path. When he made to step around them, Calen grabbed his arm. "Don't be like this," the man said in an undertone. "We're family, ain't we? We can't do this without you."

Ethan's lip curled as he shook his arm free, shifting the logs. "Spare me," he snapped. "Ain't no family of mine that would do this."

Calen opened his mouth to retort when the screen door banged again, making all three men startle. "Now what in the Sam Hell is the meaning of all this?" said the woman now standing on the porch, hair bundled into a nightcap and fists planted on her hips. Calen and Jack backed up a step, expressions back to placid and open.

"Mrs. Greene, so sorry to disturb you," Jack said with a dip of his chin. "We were just come to check about the --"

"Yeah, yeah, that damned vote," she said, waving a hand as if batting a fly. "You go tell Jessi he can stick his stupid squabbles where the sun don't shine, we don't want any part of it."

"Now Mrs. Greene --"

"Don't take that tone with me, boy," she warned. Jack looked away at the ground while Calen's face tinged pink. Ethan's mouth flattened into a line as he tried to contain a smug grin, stepping around the pair and joining his wife on the porch. He set the logs aside and kissed her on the cheek, earning a small, fond smile, then turned to stand beside her.

"That'll be all now," Ethan said firmly. Calen's jaw ticked with stubbornness. The four stared one another down at the last of the dusk light faded from the sky, the clearing lit only by the truck's high beams and clusters of fireflies. The moon was just visible over the treetops, a yellowish crescent thinner than a pinkie finger. Constellations winked behind rolling clouds.

"Jessi told us not to come back empty-handed, Ethan," Jack said, his voice an octave deeper and his eyes flashing.

"It's a real easy thing," Calen added. His wiry beard seemed suddenly denser. "Just one little vote, yes or no, and we'll leave you to your evening."

The Greene's looked between each other for a lingering moment, their hands interlocking, then back to their visitors. "If you think I believe he'll take no for an answer, you got me all wrong," Ethan growled.

One moment, the four were still as statues in the night. The next, they all exploded into action, flying at one another with superhuman speed. Hollow thudding echoed around the yard as Mrs. Greene's elbow connected with Jack's cheekbone, and Calen's knee connected with Mr. Greene's gut. Clouds of mosquitos and beetles fled to the sky as each pair grappled, their grunts and impacts carrying on the dewy air. Then, just as quickly as the fighting started, it stilled.

Calen backed toward the truck with Ethan's neck locked in the V of his arm. Mrs. Greene froze with Jack trapped in a ruthless arm-bar. "You know how to make this stop!" Calen said, his eyes darting between his friend and their escape. "Think of your daughter, her future!"

Mrs. Greene's expression took on a steel edge as she and her husband communicated through a series of rapid eye movements. Calen's hold on Ethan tightened. "Stop that," he snapped, "there's no way outta this!"

"We already thought of her future," Ethan grunted. Then, in unison, he drove his elbow into Calen's diaphragm as Mrs. Greene wrenched Jack's arm backwards. The pop-crunch of his shoulder dislocating reverberated. The air rushed from Calen's lungs, and his grip slackened just enough for Ethan to spin around and bite.

A spray of blood arched across the headlights like a swarm of locusts, Calen's scream chasing it. A hiccuping gasp followed, and Mr. and Mrs. Greene spun to see their daughter cowering behind the screen door, eyes wide. The couple looked between each other, but before they could react their "visitors" were upon them again. An eerie howl swept over the yard, and Jack tossed his head back to howl in response, too quickly for Mrs. Greene to stop him.

"Maura, what do we do?" Ethan called, desperation coloring his voice. He blocked Calen's wobbly charge with his shoulder, then harnessed the man's momentum to send him sailing over his back and onto the ground. His wife couldn't reply in words as she forced Jack slowly backwards, but when their eyes briefly met her expression mirrored his own.

The underbrush rustled. Ethan's gaze whipped around the clearing, searching for the source, but there was only shadows and fireflies. He turned toward the house, the headlights edging his face in white light and casting ghoulish shimmers over the gore smeared across his skin. He'd only taken a few steps when the forest suddenly exploded, at least two dozen not-quite-human forms pouring from between the trees with a cacophony of snarling and pounding feet. Ethan turned in place, watching the front bear down on them, then rolled his neck and flowed into an offensive half-crouch.

"Addie, run!"

The slam of the screen door punctuated the moment the first attackers descended on the couple, as the compact form of their daughter galloped away into the night.